Indigenous loan words: What’s a muskie?

Canadian English has borrowed many words from Indigenous languages. Some of these loan words designate animals and plants, while others describe Indigenous life and culture.

Brush up on your Indigenous vocabulary by taking the quiz below. If you need a hand, read our writing tip “Indigenous loan words.”

1. What is the correct spelling of the word that refers to an axe with a sharp stone or iron cutting head?
2. Which of the words below means "lake"?
3. Which animal name below is derived from an Indigenous word?
4. Wampum beads were traditionally used as currency or to record historical events. What were they made of?
5. If you are invited to share a meal of muktuk, what will you be eating?
6. In "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot refers to a lake called “Gitche Gumee,” the Indigenous name for which Great Lake?
7. Which islands in British Columbia were renamed Haida Gwaii?
8. What type of animal is a muskie?
9. Which city's name is derived from an Algonquin word meaning "to trade"?
10. The Saguenay River is said to derive its name from the Innu phrase meaning "Placeholder for the answer."
  
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